


What's Stopping You?

by Kaiielle



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Cuddling, Fluff, I just love these two so much, M/M, Making Out, Pan!Wallace, general cuteness, originshipping, pre-boyfriends stage, slay me, tbh we call them chaosshipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 03:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11797842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiielle/pseuds/Kaiielle
Summary: It's a bottle of wine shared between friends. These friends don't have feelings for each other, not at all. One of these friends isn't here with the intention to confess. It's just wine. Between friends.At least, that's what both of them want to think.(OriginShipping drabble/two-shot.)





	What's Stopping You?

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to my dear friend, meloves ayinvui. *Yes, I can finish things. Yes, I can publish them xD*
> 
> Note: In this fic, Steven is Champion, Wallace is still the 8th Gym Leader. This is in a universe where all of the Gens are on the same 'plane' of the world at the same time. So, all of the regions exist at the same time. No messed-up timelines here. (Even though that in itself makes it a 'messed up timeline'.)
> 
> I'll stop writing, now. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

_Wallace, what are you doing here?_

Wallace was impudent. He was rash and bold, he was impulsive and very, _very_ emotional, but he'd never thought that he'd let his impulsive thoughts bring him _here_ , of all places. He pursed his lips, and crossed one leg over the other; a rare sign that he was actually feeling nervous. This gesture would have gone unnoticed to anyone, except for one person. The problem was that the one person who knew almost all of his quirks and habits was the one person he was sitting in front of right now, looking calm and composed as he sipped red wine from a glass. 

_Steven Stone._

A glass identical to the one Steven was holding in his hand was sitting on the small coffee table in front of Wallace, which was already near-empty. Wallace felt no buzz, however; he was very good at holding his alcohol, and one glass of wine wasn't going to cloud his judgment. _Completely._ Wallace sighed, and reached over for the glass, swirling it around before downing the last gulp. For the first time in his life, Wallace wished he was a lightweight - he needed a looser tongue for tonight. 

He'd approached Steven after their monthly League meeting and told him he wanted to catch up with his best friend. Truth be told, he had come here under the guise of something else entirely.  
He had something he wanted to get off his chest, but now that he was in front of Steven, Wallace was suddenly feeling very tongue-tied. Once again, Wallace found himself wondering what _exactly_ he was doing here. Did he really think that it would be so easy to pour his heart out to his best friend? To his best friend who he had just so happened to catch feelings for a long time ago? He needed more wine. 

Stupid feelings. Stupid emotions. Stupid Steven Stone. 

Steven watched him with practiced eyes, knowing that it would be better for them if he waited for Wallace to speak first. He'd been surprised when, after their League meeting, Wallace had suggested the two of them head somewhere for a drink. Steven, remembering the unopened bottle of Kalos-made wine Diantha had given to him as a gift last year, suggested that they head to his home in Mossdeep, instead. The two of them were best friends - Steven had seen nothing wrong with two 'best friends' sitting together to have a glass of wine together... Except that it was evident from Wallace's unusually silent composure and stiff posture that the Gym Leader was thinking of something else _entirely_. 

Wallace was never silent. Ever. 

"This wine is good," Wallace finally said, reaching for the bottle, uninvited, to re-fill his glass. The two of them were seated at Steven's dining table, the bottle of wine being the only other thing on the table besides their glasses. 

"Diantha gets her hands on the best wine," Steven replied, hiding a small smile behind his wine glass. (He knew Wallace would be the first to speak.) "It's common knowledge between Champions." 

Wallace took a long sip, relishing the richness that poured down his throat. "You have to hook me up sometime." 

Steven quirked an eyebrow up at him. "And is that not what I'm doing right now?" 

Wallace narrowed his eyes at Steven, making the other man smirk. Wallace decided to let it slide, and set the glass back down on the table. "Your house seems more boring and barren than I remembered." He glanced up at the walls, noting that while Steven did still have those ostentatious glass cases full of rocks from his journeys, the furniture was sparser than before, more simple. 

Unfazed, Steven sat his glass back down on the table. Wallace resorting to petty insults was some kind of coping mechanism for him. "I've given some of my furniture to my father," he replied, glancing at an empty area of his home where a marble table used to be. "I'm alone here, there's no need for me to be surrounded by things I never use." There was an odd, almost silent kind of loneliness that was accompanied with his words, and this caught Wallace off-guard. Was Steven actually _complaining_? 

Steven winced; he knew that, as good as he was with identifying Wallace's habits, Wallace was just as good as reading the hidden emotions behind Steven's words. 

"My, my, Steven," Wallace said slowly. "Are you actually having a midlife crisis?" He teased. Although both of them were just in their late twenties, it was a joke Wallace liked to use often.

The Hoenn Champion rolled his eyes. "Did you come here to mock me, or was there something more pressing on your mind?" He saw it again - Wallace tensed up. _Ah._ Whatever was on Wallace's mind was something serious. "Don't answer if you don't want to," Steven said quickly. "I apologize. You'll tell me when you're ready to." 

Wallace opened his mouth, and then shut it immediately. He opted to reach for the glass once more, and drank what was left of the half-empty glass. He noticed Steven's brief look of disapproval (They'd had an argument a few months ago about the state of Wallace's liver) and he merely closed his eyes, exhaling sharply before standing up. "I can't do this."

Steven's eyebrows rose high up his forehead in surprise, wondering why he felt a tiny prick of... whatever this feeling was... when Wallace stood up, making a move to leave. "Did I say anything?" Steven wondered out loud. Yes, Wallace could be emotional, but he was never like this. He stood up, following Wallace to the door, a concerned look on his face. Wallace stopped abruptly at the door, his shoulders bunched with tension as he laid a hand on Steven's doorknob. "Wallace." Steven inhaled deeply. "Are you... alright?" 

"No." Wallace turned around, and was suddenly startled to see how _close_ was to him. He closed his eyes, a hand still on the doorknob. _Just say it, Wallace. Just say it._ He opened his eyes, his clear, turquoise eyes meeting Steven's steely-blue ones, his heart feeling like it was about to burst out of his chest. _Say it._

Steven pretended not to notice how his own heart sped up when Wallace bored his eyes into his own, the windows to his soul. He wasn't going to lie to himself and say that he hadn't noticed some sort of tension between him and Wallace. Over a decade of friendship between them hadn't prepared Steven for the feelings he felt for Wallace, so powerful and so strong that they consumed him entirely. He'd hidden it quite well, of course. Wallace flirted with everything that moved, and while it did hurt Steven a little bit, he opted to turn a blind eye to this habit of his. 

"I can't... deal with this." Wallace finally said, gesturing at the small space between them. Steven could tell that Wallace was starting to reach a breaking point, a point where he was about to explode, but this _wasn't helping_. He needed Wallace to tell him what was going on exactly, instead of constantly beating around the bush. 

"Explain." Steven exhaled loudly, crossing his arms over his chest. "'This' could mean a lot of things. 'This' could mean our friendship. 'This' could mean you visiting me at unholy hours of the night. 'This' could mean-"

"I mean _this_!" Wallace burst out, thrusting his arms out, grabbing Steven by the shoulders. "I mean this - this - this _friendship_ you and I have, when the next thing I want to do is pin you to the wall and kiss you until your lips are bruised and you can't _breathe_." Wallace laughed, a short bark that came out harsher than he'd expected. "I can't do this _friendship_ when it's making me question everything I know about myself, everything I know about _you_ , and I can't... I just can't do this anymore. Not when I feel like this." 

There was a long, poignant silence, that was broken by Wallace. The Sootopolitan gasped, as if realizing what he had just said, and immediately let go of Steven, who was looking... shell-shocked. _What have I done?_ Wallace turned around, placing his hand back on the doorknob and half-twisting it open. "Forget what I said. It was stupid. I was-"

Suddenly, there was a soft, faint sound coming from behind him. Wallace cut his speech short, once again turning around to look at Steven. He was surprised (and, he wasn't going to lie, hurt) to see Steven chuckling, his eyes crinkled up in mirth as he held a hand over his mouth, only _just_ suppressing his chuckles from becoming full-on laughs. "Are you... are you _laughing_ at me?" Wallace demanded, his face turning red. Whether it was shame or embarrassment, the motion still stood - Steven Stone was laughing at him! 

"I'm sorry..." Steven said softly, finally composing himself. Wallace was confused - hurt, angry, surprised, too - and Steven saw the rainbow of emotions flood his best friends face, and immediately sobered. "Wallace, it's not what you think. It's just..." Steven felt his face heat up, but he continued to steadily gaze into Wallace's eyes. "You just told me everything I've wanted to tell _you_." 

_What?_ Wallace felt his brain short circuit - all irritation at Steven for laughing at him in his moment of vulnerability forgotten. "You-"

There was a gentle look in Steven's eyes that Wallace saw rarely, and it made Wallace nearly throw all his inhibitions out the window. "Do you have any idea how many times I've wanted to shut you up and kiss the sass out of you?" 

Wallace wanted to rub the smirk off of Steven's face, but he also wanted to stare at that impossibly handsome look on his friend's face forever. "Seeing as one of your favorite things to tell me is 'Shut up, Wallace', I'm guessing... a while?" 

Steven stepped closer, the two of them nearly touching. Wallace let go of the doorknob, fully facing him. "You would be correct," Steven said softly. 

"Then what's stopping you?" Wallace asked, one of his hands reaching out, loosely wrapping around Steven's tie. 

"What's stopping _you_?" Steven retorted, smiling calmly.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to continue it to the end, I really did! Too bad I didn't xD Stay tuned for the next installment!


End file.
